1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus for supplying spout-equipped bags, which supplies spout-equipped bags to a packing machine.
2. Prior Art
Spout-equipped bags are delivered from a bag manufacture to a factory in a state where spout portions are aligned in a line on a plastic holding rail (or rail-formed magazine). To adjust a mismatch between a speed for treating the spout-equipped bags on the packing machine and a speed that an operator loads the spout-equipped bags delivered from the bag manufacture, a supply apparatus that supplies the spout-equipped bags to the packing machine by once storing them is used in the factory. Apparatuses disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2500557 and Japanese Patent No. 4584440 are known as the above-mentioned supply apparatus.
The supply apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2500557 is so constructed that a holding rail for holding nozzle-equipped pouches is pushed and moved by a chain conveyer in a state of being loaded on guides. When each holding rail moved in this way is conveyed to a pouch pushing-out position, a plurality of nozzle-equipped pouches held on the holding rail are pushed and moved on a pouch accumulate rail. In the supply apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2500557, the operator does not need to transfer the spout-equipped bags housed on the holding rail and should only mount the holding rail on the guide in a state of being delivered from the bag manufacture.
Japanese Patent No. 4584440 discloses a supply apparatus for a multi-processing machine that processes the spout-equipped bags in parallel. In the multi-processing machine, a plurality of spout-equipped bags must be supplied in parallel. Therefore, in the supply apparatus in Japanese Patent No. 4584440, the plurality of spout-equipped bags are stored on a plurality of conveyor rails on an endless chain which is circulated and moved on an endless track, and when the spout-equipped bags are conveyed to a taking-out or removal position, they are simultaneously pushed and moved from two conveying rails to two transfer rails by pushing members on the position.
In storing a large quantity of spout-equipped bags on the supply apparatus, the operator can transfer the spout-equipped bags housed on the plastic holding rails to the conveying rails in an asynchronous manner to filling process of the packing machine.
The supply apparatus in Japanese Patent No. 2500557 is to supply the nozzle-equipped pouches from the holding rails to a filling/packing device one by one, and it cannot supply in parallel the nozzle-equipped pouches from the plurality of holding rails. Although the supply apparatus in Japanese Patent No. 4584440 can supply in parallel the spout-equipped bags from the plurality of holding rails, it is desirable that an interval between two transfer rails of the packing machine and an interval between the conveying rails are the same. However, a standard chain is made in an inch standard, and therefore, the holding rails cannot help having an interval correspondent to the inch size of the endless chain. On the other hand, when the filling/packing device is manufactured by MKS system of units, the interval between two transfer rails does not match with the interval between the conveying rails. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust as bending a longitudinal midway portion in each transfer rail. However, this treatment causes a new trouble that the bended portion of the transfer rail becomes easy to be clogged up with the spout-equipped bags, thereby impairing the processing efficiency of the packing device.
The contents of Japanese Patent No. 2500557 and Japanese Patent No. 4584440 are incorporated herein by reference in their entirely.